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Friday, December 16, 2016

Air Serbia boosts in-house training capacity

NEWS FLASH

Air Serbia has strengthened its pilot training capacity by gaining approval to conduct type rating training on the Airbus A320 and A330 aircraft. As an Approved Training Organisation (ATO), Air Serbia is able to prepare pilots for the certifications they need to become a first officer or captain on its jet fleet, as well as deliver Cross Crew Qualification (CCQ) training for pilots’ transitioning from the A320 to the larger A330 aircraft. Captains Goran Nižić and Nenad Mitić are the first pilots to undergo Synthetic Flight Instructor training on the A320 aircraft with Air Serbia, and will soon be joined by First Officers Andreja Milosavljević and Predrag Djurić who are completing line training on the A320. Three more captains are scheduled to complete the Type Rating Instructor course on the wide-body A330 by March 2017. The comprehensive development course takes approximately one month and involves ground training in Belgrade, full flight simulator sessions abroad and line training under supervision on the Air Serbia network. Air Serbia's CEO, Dane Kondić, said, “Becoming a certified Approved Training Organisation shows that Air Serbia has built up a remarkable amount of experience and technical know-how on Airbus aircraft. Our Airbus jets are the backbone of our fleet and by enhancing our in-house training capacity we can better plan for future growth. This ensures Air Serbia has the right pilot resources to achieve our strategic fleet and network objectives".

In the past, Air Serbia pilots underwent type rating training for the A330 aircraft with member airlines of Etihad Airways Partners including Alitalia in Rome, where 32 pilots received their certification this year as part of preparations for the launch of long haul flights to New York, and at Air Berlin, where the training focused on the A320 aircraft type. Currently, Air Serbia has a pool of 242 pilots across its Airbus, ATR and Boeing fleet.

8 comments:

Air Serbia has built up a remarkable amount of experience and technical know-how on Airbus aircraft ... in general I like Serbian pilots but the statement made by the CEO absolutely disagrees with the findings of the commission that investigated the recent incident in Zurich where a number of faults were observed (http://avherald.com/h?article=47c013db&opt=0) Either Kondic is not aware about this ZRH event or he is acting like a clown; neither option is good for Air Serbia.

Incident is not recent, it happened more than two years ago. To assume lack of corrective action and subsequent improvement as you indicated in the comment is preposterous and offensive.

Worst of all, liking or disliking of pilots based on nationality alone represents a twisted mindset that should be eradicated among professionals. I am not, and yet I cringe every time nationality is introduced as a factor during discussions of airline safety. Serbian pilots fly for Wizz, Emirates and many other airlines around the world. Do you check their passports every time you step on a commercial airliner anywhere in the world? Do you like German or French pilots? Lubitz slammed Germanwings 9525 into the mountain, AF447 crew made mistakes far worse than Air Serbia crew in that incident. There are very few exceptions where nation, tradition and culture was linked to CRM issues that contributed to accidents, most notably for pilots from Korea in a string of accidents over the past few decades, and they are working to rectify it. Chauvinism and prejudice in avheralds comments are deplorable, even more so when they come from professionals.

He showed being inferior in many situations when it was necessary to demonstrate leadership over the airline. ZRH story is just one among many examples. Kondic should be replaced by someone more devoted to the steady growth of the company. He ruined the growth with the implementation of "greedy" pricing policy in 2015. After that ASL lost some important passengers.

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LIVERY OF THE WEEK

Jetstar special

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Australian low cost carrier Jetstar has unveiled a special livery on one of its Airbus A320s to promote the first country-specific version of the board game Scrabble. Manufacturer Mattel has included a list of local slang in its official glossary that are also featured on the jet, including words such as "Bonza", "Mollydooker" and "Devo". The A320 also includes the airline's name spelled out with Scrabble tiles. The jet is being used on both domestic and international routes and features Scrabble branding inside the cabin as well

GLOBAL AVIATION NEWS

Lufthansa, easyJet favourites for Air Berlin

Lufthansa Group and UK-based easyJet have been selected as preferred bidders for the main assets of the insolvent Air Berlin, the German carrier has confirmed. Lufthansa also submitted a bid for Air Berlin's Austria-based subsidiary Niki, which could be integrated into its LCC arm Eurowings. Air Berlin administrator Lucas Flother had planned to keep these decisions confidential until September 25, after Germany’s general elections. Air Berlin said in a statement that the creditors’ committee will continue talks with the two carriers until October 12 with the aim of selling Air Berlin's air transport assets. Talks with bidders interested in other assets will continue in parallel. Lufthansa Group CEO Carsten Spohr said at a media event in Frankfurt that Lufthansa’s bid for Air Berlin's assets is focused on securing the 38 Airbus A319/320s it wet leases from Air Berlin. The Star Alliance member is also interested in a further 20 to 40 aircraft, without creating antitrust concerns. Those 38 wet-leased aircraft carry about 1.000 passengers a day, mainly for LCC Eurowings, and Lufthansa’s priority is to keep that operation stable. Lufthansa would need around 3.000 new employees as it seeks to build market share following the exit of Air Berlin, which has 8.000 employees. However, Lufthansa is not interested in Air Berlin's long-haul routes because it said Eurowings can grow this segment on its own. Air Berlin will end long-haul operations September 25.
Source: ATW